First published 2006
The five Novak children navigate their lives in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, where company houses line the streets and church festivals mark the seasons. Their coal mining town divides into ethnic neighborhoods: Little Italy, Swedetown, and Polish Hill. Each child faces the pull between staying in familiar Bakerton and seeking something beyond its borders. As the 1940s unfold, the family confronts wartime changes, economic shifts, and personal losses that reshape their community forever. Union disputes simmer while firemen's parades celebrate tradition. The decade brings moments of joy alongside devastating tragedy. Through it all, the Novak siblings must decide what they owe their family, their town, and themselves. Haigh captures how ordinary people weather extraordinary times, showing how one family's story reflects the broader transformation of industrial America and the generation that lived through it.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, small-town
Setting: Bakerton, Pennsylvania
Period: 1940s
Hardcover · Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd